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Lucy Terry Prince Composes 'Bars Fight,' First Poem by a Black American

Lucy Terry Prince, an enslaved woman in Deerfield, Massachusetts, composes 'Bars Fight,' a ballad recounting a 1746 Abenaki raid. Preserved orally for over a century before print publication in 1855, it is the earliest known poem by a Black American. Her vivid, metrically precise verse demonstrates extraordinary literary talent despite her enslavement.

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1746
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  1. 1746
    Lucy Terry Prince Composes 'Bars Fight,' First Poem by a Black American

    Lucy Terry Prince, an enslaved woman in Deerfield, Massachusetts, composes 'Bars Fight,' a ballad recounting a 1746 Abenaki raid. Preserved orally for over a century before print publication in 1855, it is the earliest known poem by a Black American. Her vivid, metrically precise verse demonstrates extraordinary literary talent despite her enslavement.

  2. August 25, 1746· debated
    Lucy Terry composes "Bars Fight"

    The earliest known work of literature by an African American.